1. John Habgood was Bishop of Durham from 1973 to 1983, and Archbishop of York from 18 November 1983 to 1995.
22 Facts About John Habgood
1. 2.
John Habgood took a leave of absence in later life, and in 2011 was one of the first peers to explicitly retire from the Lords.
3.
John Habgood was educated at Eton, King's College, Cambridge and Ripon College Cuddesdon.
4.
In 1961 John Habgood married Rosalie Mary Anne Boston ; he had two daughters and two sons, including Francis John Habgood, formerly Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police.
5.
John Habgood had Alzheimer's disease in his later years, and died at a care home in York on 6 March 2019, at the age of 91.
6.
John Habgood was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1954 and as a priest in 1955.
7.
John Habgood was consecrated a bishop and appointed as Bishop of Durham in 1973.
8.
John Habgood was passed over by Margaret Thatcher for appointment as Bishop of London in 1981.
9.
John Habgood was elevated to Archbishop of York on 18 November 1983.
10.
John Habgood supported the ordination of women to the priesthood, arguing that God is neither male nor female.
11.
John Habgood supported accommodating those who did not, and so introduced provincial episcopal visitors to provide pastoral care and oversight to laity, clergy, and parishes who could not accept women priests.
12.
When Robert Runcie announced his retirement as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1990, John Habgood was regarded as one of the favourites to succeed him.
13.
The religious journalist Clifford Longley described him as "the outstanding churchman of his generation", although noting that John Habgood had described himself as too old.
14.
John Habgood had attracted criticism inside and outside the Church for his behaviour during the 1987 Crockford's Clerical Directory preface controversy.
15.
John Habgood declined to take up the automatic place he could have had on the Crown Appointments Commission, which would select the two names to be given to the Prime Minister.
16.
John Habgood was endorsed in a leader in The Times on 10 July 1990.
17.
From his appointment as Bishop of Durham in 1973 to his retirement as Archbishop of York in 1995, John Habgood sat in the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual.
18.
John Habgood voted against Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which banned local authorities from "promoting homosexuality" and state schools from teaching the "acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship": it was later repealed in 2000 in Scotland and in 2003 in the rest of the UK.
19.
John Habgood was created a life peer as Baron John Habgood, of Calverton in the County of Buckinghamshire on 8 September 1995, allowing him to continue to sit in the House of Lords as a Lord Temporal.
20.
John Habgood sat as a crossbencher, rather than join a political party.
21.
John Habgood was a member and past president of The Science and Religion Forum.
22.
An early 21st-century example is his review of Ronald L Numbers's book The Creationists, which Habgood titled "The creation of Creationism: Today's brand of Protestant extremism should worry theologians as well as scientists".